Talent shows lack ability to produce real superstars

Date Published: 06-Jun-2011

When programmes that want to create superstars can no longer achieve this ambition, then it is time that these shows be scrapped with a precondition that anything similar can never be allowed on telly again. Some people are mesmerised by them but really they are the lowest form of television imaginable.

We are talking about reality talent shows here – or lack of talent as the case may be – but really they have become a spent force simply because they do not produce top acts or singing stars that have lasted the pace. Okay, many have achieved some notoriety in the immediate aftermath of their success but in the vast majority of cases, it has not lasted.

Last week and over the weekend we were treated to the agony of yet another Britain’s Got Talent onTV3 and ITV which culminated in a chap called McDowall from Scotland winning the competition but don’t let that worry your head because the likelihood is that you will never hear of this chap again and your life will be none the worse, I assure you.

This is kind of an X Factor only that it allows a bit more variety in the acts that perform but in the end they throw up much the same result – a winner who is in our face for a few days and then nobody can ever remember who won the bloody thing 12 months later. Thankfully I think the fascination with these talent shows is dissipating.

This show really should be titled Britain Hasn’t Much Talent But This Is The Best We’ve Got because some of the acts that were whittled down to the last 10 were embarrassing to say the least. Christ, they have nearly 60 million people and all we were left with was someone on keyboards who would have been quite at home in Butlins or some seaside arcade.

There were others with deep and hopefully meaningful voices who didn’t really impress – although one of them won the thing in the end – and there was a dancer from Eastern Europe and an elderly gentleman who couldn’t really sing to save his life. Oh yes, there was a comedian who was so unfunny that you could not even laugh at how bad his jokes were.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.